RESULTS OF SURGICAL TREATMENT OF COLORECTAL CANCER, ELECTIVE AND EMERGENCY, IN PATIENTS WITH COVID-19

INTRODUCTION

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was identified in Brazil in February 2020. The first Brazilian case was reported on February 25, 2020⁴, and since then, the number of cases increased dramatically, placing Brazil among the countries with the largest number of infected patients and the largest number of deaths from the new coronavirus (>600,000) (4)

A total of 3,000 patients with moderate or severe COVID-19 were admitted to the Hospital de Clinicas of the School of Medicine of the University of São Paulo for in-hospital treatment. Following the recommendations of its infection committee and the main medical societies, all nononcological elective surgeries were suspended.

From 2008 to 2018, the Cancer Institute performed over 8,500 surgeries for colorectal cancer. In this new scenario, although the number of surgeries was reduced to avoid including contaminated patients, some procedures cannot be canceled or postponed; this is especially the case for procedures performed at the Cancer Institute, given the need for continued oncological treatment in both elective and urgent cases. A contingency plan was, therefore, established to allow us to proceed with surgeries that cannot wait due to the risk of disease progression and worsening of the prognosis.

Three patients with colorectal cancer underwent elective (one patient) or urgent (two patients) surgical treatment in April 2020, and they were diagnosed with COVID-19 only during the postoperative period.